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Friday, January 24, 2014

Art Adventure Time 2: Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Maybe we got a little lost...But sometimes it's really refreshing to get lost in nature for a little while, especially when you are majorly stressed.

This A.A.T trip actually took place about a month ago, at the peak of moving stress when I wasn't sure we were going to be able to get a place without a cosigner, but we managed! Actually after this adventure I got a call from the apartment people telling me that we could move forward, we would just have to pay a lot more.

I felt about 1000x better after my wandering.

This is my bff, Kili. He was going to come to the movie with me, but I had to go there straight from work.

I was in a lotr mood after seeing The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,( Which I loved, even if I'm still not sure why it needed to be made into three movies.) so I decided to marathon all the movies currently available on DVD. Those movies always inspire me to want to go outside and explore and that super dose of pure-tolkieny goodness I made some time on my next day off for some A.A.T at my local state park. I learned a lot of interesting facts and had so much fun!

For example, Venus Flytraps ONLY grow natively about 60 or 75 miles around Wilmington. This explains our giant Venus Flytrap statue found downtown. I didn't expect to see many, it being the dead of winter and all, but there were none! I later saw signs warning people about a Flytrap Poacher. When I got home, I looked it up and my local newspaper reported that over 1,000 were stolen, with a market value of $20,000!

That's your depressing fact for the day, but I assure you the trip was fun in spite of it! I took loads of pictures, and the hike lasted about 4 hours!

Deer print! I didn't find any in the flesh though.

Sandy 'shrooms!

Around this time we found a sign saying Sugarloaf Overlook .8 miles. We decided to make that our first goal but somehow took the long way, doubling back a few times and getting lost, before asking for directions.

This is Reindeer Moss, which is a misnomer, cause its actually a lichen.

This stuff was everywhere!

Every time I got to a hill and saw more reindeer moss, I thought we had to be at Sugarloaf because the moss was white and I thought maybe that's where it got its name. I was wrong.

Awww there were a bunch of these baby pine trees, they look like Truffula trees(from The Lorax)

Perfect place to take a rest.

But what was that in the distance?

We were getting closer! Still had no idea what a Sugarloaf was per say, but excited to see one.

I found a Weirwood in my journeying. I was hoping for an Ent, or hoping to find an Ent Wife.

Finally, when we thought we had taken another wrong turn somewhere, we heard the screams of wild children in the woods close to us. We knew we were getting close, as this is the main attraction of the park.

We had arrived.

Sugarloaf was a giant (50ft) sand dune. The view was beautiful. I decided to climb down that way and see the water.

We followed the waterline for a while, seeing all the interesting things washed up on the side of the river. Lots of lost construction hats.

Saw some baby crabs, but they were too quick to photograph.

I think this is my favorite image.

I still only have a partially finished art journal page for this day, since it was such a long hike, but I'll update this post with the finished page later.

I hope you guys are excited for Tuesday! I have a wonderfully useful tutorial coming.